Such legal tactics -- treating the entire population as an investigation suspect and issuing a general warrant that covers hundreds of thousands, if not hundreds of millions of people -- have not been used in the U.S. since the British empire used them to try to bring their rebellious colonies back into line prior to the American revolution, Sen. Paul has pointed out. And more alarmingly, the NSA has suggested that Congress can't be trusted, effectively admitting it spies on Congress for the President and military.

The suit focuses solely on the mining of metadata, which the NSA can use to track Americans' locations, who Americans are calling, and when those calls were placed. Reports indicate that the NSA captures roughly 99 percent of calling metadata on any given day. The lawsuit may also be interpreted as covering the data the NSA seizes from popular apps.

The lesson of the American Revolution was that this should never happen again, and yet the NSA's data collection program is the modern equivalent of this practice... Paul Revere rode through the streets to tell us the British were coming, not the Americans are coming.

Paul Revere was spying for the people, not on the people. [Image Source: History.com]

Ken Cuccinelli is representing the potential class of plaintiffs (the U.S. people) in the case. Mr. Cuccinelli had previously worked as the attorney general of Virginia, returning to law after coming up short in the gubernatorial race in fall 2013.

Ken Cuccinelli will be representing Americans in the case.

The lawsuit is backed by money from both FreedomWorks and the RandPAC, Senator Paul's political action committee (PAC). Senator Paul is willing to spend, in effect, his own money that could have been used in his potential 2016 presidential run to try to put an end to mass spying.

RandPAC officials state:

We have assembled a legal team and we expect to be opposed by the vast resources of the federal government, yet I am optimistic that we will prevail, because we are seeking to protect a cornerstone of the Constitution.

Freedomworks has disclosed a small financial relationship with Senator Paul. It donated $5,000 USD during his 2012 Senate campaign, money it says was given due to his support of preserving civil liberties via conservative interpretation of the Constitution.

Both FreedomWorks and Senator Paul expect the case to be pushed to the U.S. Supreme Court level, as whoever loses at the federal district and appeal circuit level will likely continue to appeal until it reaches there. They argue that the Supreme Court must offer a clear interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and how it applies to digital searches of Americans. Comments Sen. Paul:

Ultimately,the Supreme Court will be arbiter of what the Fourth Amendment means. We need to be asking these questions ... whether we get to [larger questions about the Patriot Act] in the court case I don't know.

We agree that the NSA’s phone-records program is unconstitutional. Mass surveillance of this kind infringes not just on privacy rights but on the freedoms of speech and association as well. We’ve advanced these arguments in our own lawsuit against the NSA, and over the next few weeks we’ll make them to a federal appeals court.